An Elephant is killed every 15 minutes in Africa. China is slaughtering all of Africa's elephants. Yes China is killing all of Africa's elephants not for food and not for clothing but just for their tusks/ivory. In the last 3 years alone, Tanzania has lost more than 40% of its elephants and the simple reason is that, China has taken over Africa's wildlife. The international ban on ivory trade about 2 decades ago means absolutely nothing to China.

China needs more and more ivories to satisfy its "ivory-crazed" population and they are more than ready to kill any elephant they come into contact with in Africa. China never accepted the ban on ivory trade. In China today, it is all legal. It is even the politicians and policy makers who buy ivory the most in China today.

The World Bank and the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) were set up during the end of the Second World War to rebuild the economies of Europe. However, in order for the world bank and the IMF to implement their policies, they (the world bank and the IMF) began offering loans to poor countries but only if the poor countries privatized their economies and allowed western corporations free access to their raw materials and markets. That was a poverty trap and many poor countries realized it when it was too late. We were already in chains.

That was the beginning of much of the problems we face today in Africa. Now we are in a vicious cycle of poverty and there seems to be no way out. The western corporations flourish while the poor continue to die in poverty.

It is larger markets that enable economies to grow and larger markets generally depend on regional integration. In other words, if you don’t integrate, you fragment your markets leaving your economy at the mercy of external forces. One way western countries control poor third world countries in Africa is by controlling the markets of those poor countries. Once the markets of a country are controlled by an external force, it is almost impossible for that country to gain economic freedom and that is the problem facing most poor third world countries in the world today.

Our markets are fragmented and we are caught in a trade-trap making it almost impossible for our economies to grow at the rates they should be.

The more we fight and kill ourselves, the more profit (money) they make so even as we work very hard to achieve peace and understanding, there are many up there in the top working extremely hard to make sure there are wars and even more wars so they can profit from the deaths of untold number of people. This is the situation in Africa today and that is why every now and then you hear conflicts, political violence and rumors of war all across the continent.

Let me begin with a clear example to explain what I am trying to say. Many of you have heard about Darfur and the deaths of untold number of people (some say about 500,000 although the true figure is far bigger than that). However, not so many people know the Sudan conflict was somehow "a proxy war".

Some of the peacekeepers sent to Africa often take advantage of poor local communities and in some cases, sexually abuse young boys and girls. They come in as angels but end up taking advantage of our pains and sorrows. They take advantage of our fragile conditions and exploit us for personal gains and they do all these and many more in uniforms. They even rape our children and grandchildren. They rape our brothers and sisters and put to silence, those who resist.

Yes they rape Africa’s children some as young as 8 and they do so in uniforms sometimes with their names boldly written on their chests and some even end up with medals of honor. Those who see these barbaric activities are often afraid to speak out and even if they do, who will believe them?